An influential Republican state lawmaker stepped down as leader of an important legislative panel less than a week after a report accused him of exchanging more than 70 text messages with a jailed landscaper facing federal child pornography and sexual abuse charges.
Sen. Ray E. Holmberg, a 78-year-old grandfather of five, is North Dakota’s longest-serving state senator—and until yesterday, chairman of the Legislative Management Committee, which decides members’ assignments and topics to consider for legislation.
“Recent events and discussions have made it clear to me that the interim governing body of the legislature, Legislative Management, does not need to be any part of that discussion,” Holmberg said in a statement on Wednesday announcing his resignation. “Consequently, I will be stepping down as chairman of Legislative Management, effective immediately. This will allow Vice-Chairman Chet Pollert to complete my term. No further comments on this announcement will be forthcoming.”
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Reached by phone Thursday morning, Holmberg, who last month abruptly announced he would not seek reelection due to “medical issues,” declined to comment on the texts or explain why he had been in touch last August with 34-year-old Nicholas James Morgan-Derosier, whom the feds allege had victimized as many as 21 children, including his own nephews. The two reportedly texted back and forth some 72 times, with 65 of the messages being sent within a two-hour timeframe, according to the Forum Of Fargo, which obtained the jail call log through a Freedom of Information request.
The text messages themselves have not been publicly released.
“I take the advice of my counsel and I do not talk to anyone about that,” Holmberg, a retired school counselor, told The Daily Beast.
Mark Friese, a well-known criminal defense lawyer in Grand Forks retained by Holmberg, said he was seeking further details about the reported interactions with Morgan-Derosier.
“I have very little information, we’re still gathering information,” Friese told The Daily Beast, noting that Holmberg had voluntarily resigned from his chairmanship and had not been “removed from the legislature or anything like that.”
“I don’t have any reports on anything yet,” Friese said. “I don’t have the messages. I’m working on it.”
Rep. Josh Boschee, the Democratic minority leader of the North Dakota House of Representatives, said he thought it appropriate that Holmberg stepped down from his leadership position, but told The Daily Beast that “there are still a lot of unknowns.”
“The first thing I called on Senator Holmberg to do was to make a request to the authorities to make those messages public,” Boschee said. “I am continuing to respond publicly, as more information comes out, that we will evaluate as we go. I certainly want to respect and listen to people who have accusations, but also want to make sure we respect everyone involved. Victims have rights, and so do people accused of crimes.”
Pollert did not respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment.
Morgan-Derosier was being held on state child pornography charges at the Grand Forks County Jail last summer, when the texts reportedly occurred. In December 2021, federal prosecutors filed a complaint that superseded North Dakota’s charges. Inmates at the Grand Forks jail are allowed to use an approved text messaging service while detained, which is how he and Holmberg allegedly communicated.
In an interview with the Forum of Fargo, Holmberg claimed the two had been texting about “a variety of things,” such as patio work he said Morgan-Derosier had performed for him. However, he insisted to the outlet that he no longer had the messages on his phone, which were “just gone.”
Holmberg has not been charged with any crime related to those which Morgan-Derosier stands accused of.
The owner of a business called Team Lawn, Morgan-Derosier was arrested and charged in the child porn case last March. He was barred in 2020 from doing business in North Dakota after complaints of fraud, theft by deception, and passing bad checks.
In an affidavit attached to a federal complaint filed Dec. 15, 2021, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Special Agent Daniel M. Casetta said the child pornography and sexual abuse case against Morgan-Derosier began with a local probe of his business practices.
But when investigators searched his Grand Forks home for evidence of construction fraud, they stumbled upon a thumb drive that allegedly contained thousands of videos and photographs of children being sexually abused, including naked pictures of two prepubescent boys identified in the complaint as Morgan-Derosier’s nephews. Among other handles, Morgan-Derosier used an email account under the name “hungfunstud263@gmail.com,” according to the affidavit.
(The Daily Beast has redacted the affidavit to protect the identities of the children.)
The affidavit cites a series of messages between Morgan-Derosier and an online contact with the screen name “Perv Taboo,” in which Morgan-Derosier says he loves “young boys and… incest,” adding that his “Fav age is 7-13.” Morgan-Derosier’s nephews, he says in a follow-up message, were 6 and 9 at the time.
In September 2021, Morgan-Derosier’s former employee and romantic partner, Nicholas Beeche, was interviewed by federal agents. Beeche said the two met in 2019 on the dating app Grindr, and that Morgan-Derosier offered him a job and invited him to live with him in North Dakota. According to Beeche, Morgan-Derosier’s nephews had previously stayed over at Morgan-Derosier’s home, where the boys “slept with Derosier in his bedroom,” the affidavit states.
Comments made by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Puhl during a Jan. 4 detention hearing appear to shed at least a small bit of light on what Morgan-Derosier was texting while behind bars, according to a transcript of the proceeding obtained by the Forum of Fargo.
In one, Puhl said Morgan-Derosier texted on Aug. 23 with a “77-year-old man from Grand Forks.” The man was not identified in court.
In the exchange, the 77-year-old man asked Morgan-Derosier to bring his boyfriend—presumably Beeche, who was then 19- or 20-years-old—over for a massage. Puhl told the judge that Beeche was unaware Morgan-Derosier was “serving him up to a… 77-year-old man.”
Holmberg was 77 at the time. Asked about the message, Holmberg told the Forum, “I don’t know what you’re talking about, OK?”
GOP Senate Majority Leader Rich Wardner told the Associated Press that Holmberg is guilty of bad judgment but nothing else, at this stage.
“He sent 72 messages to a bad, bad person,” Wardner told the wire service. “That’s not illegal and until there is more information I think [his committee resignation] is a step in the right direction… If there is any evidence of any wrongdoing, we will act and we will act quickly. Right now, all we have is that it looks bad.”
Morgan-Derosier’s court-appointed lawyer, Christopher P. Bellmore, did not immediately respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment.
